"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Down on the Farm: 8/3/2014

AAA Salt Lake City Bees stung the Fresno Grizzlies 7-0:

Mike Kickham(LHP)- 7 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.67.

On the season, Kickham has 117 K's against 49 BB's in 127.2 IP with a GO/AO= 1.82. He has also allowed just 6 HR's. He's improved on that slightly over his last 10 starts with a 3.41 ERA, 60 K's and 20 BB's in 58 IP with a GO/AO= 2.08. Those are not half bad numbers for the PCL. It would seem that Kickham would be second in line after Petit if an emergency starter was needed.

Chase Compton was an undrafted FA out of Louisiana-Lafayette where he was a teammate of Seth Harrison. Nick Sabo makes his pro debut. He is a big LHP(6'5", 230 lbs) out of Long Beach State who was drafted in the middle rounds. Logan Webb gets his first pro start and shows off his strikeout stuff. Another nice inning from the big kid, Rayan Hernandez. I'm calling Webb, Hernandez, Stetson Woods and Dylan Brooks The Four Kids and they are looking good! Woods and Brooks are The Two Tall Ones.

3 comments:

The Four Horsemen... er, the 4 Kids, are looking good early on. Dylan Brooks is probably still my favorite of them all, but Webb's likely has the highest ceiling. I have no idea what the plan is for next spring, but I would really like to see at least Webb and one of the other 3 ticketed for Augusta, as Crick and Blackburn were a few years ago.

A couple other notes on the AZL. If you haven't seen the video of Carbonell on SFGiantPotential, I'd check it out. I'm sure he's advanced for rookie ball, but I think this guy is going to be a player. I like the looks of him already. I spoke with Conner P who runs that site, and it sounds like he was very impressed with Michael Santos. I believe he'll have some video and a report of Santos out pretty soon. There's another younger guy having a very nice summer in the desert.

I'll tell you guys right now- a guy to watch is former Dirtbag OF'r Brennan Metzger. I watched him play for 4 seasons, and know what kind of player he is. You guys that love Duffy will love Metzger, if he sees enough field time, that is.

He's a former teammate of Duffy's at LB, (Brennan's only knock is he's a year older at 24), and was drafted as a senior 4 rounds later in 2012. Accordingly, he'll be short on playing opportunities and will have to grind it out to earn a spot. Unfortunately, he lost all of last season due to a serious health issue that required major surgery, but has defied odds by battling his way back on to the field. In 2012, Metzger was at short season S-K and a stint at High-A, both with good results for the small amount of play time he was offered. He got the respect of Andy Skeels, and was told so. Trebelhorn loved him as well at S-K, but their hands are tied, having to play the money boys until instructed otherwise. But the Giants are a class organization that loves his kind of playing, and have remained faithful to him throughout his illness, even saving him a spot upon his return.

A baseball rat to the bone, Brennan is the epitome of competitor, the kind that takes it extremely personal. He swings for damage and will run through a block wall to catch a ball. He was one of the quickest players on the team for his 4 seasons, had a total of 3 errors in his four seasons at CF for LB. Almost broke the school record for career HBP's as well. Brennan's career average wasn't over the top but solid, considering that Blair Field was his home.

Bottom line for him is that the pressure is on with his age and situation, but after all he's been through, he's hungry and is a guy who can rise to the challenge. All of that makes Brennan a very exciting player to watch.

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.